Published: 1999
Publisher: Penguin Press Science
ISBN: 0-140-23012-2
In The User Illusion, Tor Norretranders explores a broad range of topics from information theory to cognitive psychology to existentialism. The edition I read is an excellent translation of the Danish author's work. At times it is evident that Tor over-reached in the scope of the book and you sometimes wonder about the point of the book. All in all though it is a fascinating read and for someone interested in Human Computer Interaction as I am, it is a very good survey of a number of excellent topics.
Interesting notes
There is so much information in this book that my notes here are going to be just a smattering of interesting factoids and tidbits that I found interesting as I read.
Quote- "What is done by what is called myself is, I feel, done by something greater than myself in me." James Clerk Maxwell
Note - The end result of a calculation is valuable because of the information that it does not contain. Calculating is the process of discarding unintersting information
Comparison - Thermodynamics is about macrostates that interest people; e.g. Heat. Information theory is about macrostates that interest telecommunication companies; e.g. Symbols
Note- To Shannon, entropy was information. The more disorder, the more information contained in it.
Quote- "I am unprovable" : Godel. This is a true statement which means there is truth that cannot be proven. Consistency cannot be proven from within a system.
Note - Turing conceived the theory of computing at the moment he realized you could not create a machine that could compute everything. (The most accurate map is the terrain itself)
Note - You can do whatever you know you can do. You know whether you can do more only after you have done it.
Note - Order is order. Everything else is unprovable. It might be order in the end.
Definition - Computational Irreducibility: We do not know the pattern until we have computed the formula.
Three levels of Communication Theory
- Technical - transmission of symbols
- Semantic - Meaning conveyed
- Behavioral - Impact on receiver
Interesting - Conscious perception has been computered at between 16 and 50 bits per second. Sensory perception has been estimated anywhere between 10 and 100 billion bits per second.
Conclusion
There is no way this review does justice to a book of this magnitude. I would recommend if someone has an interest in any of the topics addresses. Tor does a fantastic job of bringing some of the theoretical physics and philosophical discussions down to a level that mere mortals can comprehend!